[stylist] synopsis

[Judith Bron]

I want it in there to demonstrate Jennifer's emotional state.  Because of 
her identity problems, she can't commit to an emotional relationship.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "loristay" <loristay at aol.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis


I still think you could leave Randy out of the synopsis altogether.
Lori
On Oct 19, 2010, at 12:04:39 PM, "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net> wrote:

From:   "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
Subject:    Re: [stylist] synopsis
Date:   October 19, 2010 12:04:39 PM EDT
To: jsorozco at gmail.com, "Writer's Division Mailing List" 
<stylist at nfbnet.org>
Hi Joe, Here's my latest attempt. I think this is more along the lines
everyone was talking about. Bottom line, do you think it sells the book?
Thanks, Judith
Jennifer Rabinowitz, living in Curtis Cove New York, begins our novel with a
near death experience and questions about her identity. Her foster mother,
Sheila has rushed to Jennifer's side to be with her after the accident.
Sheila's flashback to the day she received the only objects left by 
Jennifer's
long dead parents leaves the reader wondering about Jennifer, her parents
and the mystery surrounding the letter left to their daughter.

Jennifer's best friend is Randy, captain of her high school football team.
Randy wants more from Jennifer than friendship, but Jennifer reveals that
she can't begin an emotional relationship until she understands more about
her own identity.

The reader is introduced to the bigotry surrounding Jennifer's identity as a
Jew. This bigotry is all she knows about Judaism on her journey to find out
just who and what she is in the world she has lived in since being orphaned
when she was two.

Pessi Goldberg begins the story with a mother dieing of cancer and a
reclusive personality. Pessi's classmate Chavy Levy starts to bring her out
of the protective shell Pessi has shrouded herself in since entering her
present school the year before. Pessi's life is complicated by the poverty
shrouding her once affluent family.

Eventually Pessi's mother passes away from the cancer that has ravaged her
body. Heart broken Pessi now questions the motives of an Almighty she has
believed in her entire life. She questions why the Almighty has taken a
mother away from her two younger siblings. For the first time in her life
she has her solid faith in the Almighty challenged as she tries to overcome
her devastating loss.

Jennifer continues to puzzle over her Jewish identity that has only been a
part of her life during the chiding of anti-Semitic classmates. Eventually
her foster mother is helpful in getting her registered in an observant
Jewish summer camp hoping that the camp can teach Jennifer something about
her roots and identity. Jennifer returns from camp intent on living as an
observant Jewess. Again Sheila is helpful in getting her placed with a
family in Jenna, New York. This family doesn't work out, and Rabbi Levy,
Chavy's father, agrees to take Jennifer into their home.

The lives of Jennifer from the public schools of Curtis Cove, and the lives
of Pessi and Chavy from an observant Jewish Girls' school in Jenna, New York
become entwined forever. The small book and letter left by her parents has
become a fixture in Jennifer's backpack. In her darkened bedrooms Jennifer
clings to these possessions left by her parents and talks to them. She
eventually begins to learn the Hebrew language that both the small book and
letter are written in. She is able to learn from the letter that her Hebrew
name is Breindle and her mother Channah.

The day before the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashannah, the high school
principal Mrs. Newman asks Jennifer if she has a Hebrew name. She shyly
tells the principal her Hebrew name is Breindle and her mother Channah. The
principal asks her how she knows this and Jennifer pulls the small packet
out of her backpack. The principal pales when she sees these things and
tells Jennifer to put them in a safe place.

Rabbi Levy is an investment banker. The principal asks him later that day
to put the packet in a safe place and he places it in his safety deposit box
at the bank.

Pessi learns that her father intends to remarry. She vows she will never
accept this change in their family. More problems for Pessi who, since her
mother's illness and death has become a class leader, experiences more
turmoil over the change that is about to take place in her family.

Unbeknownst to Jennifer, the letter has a financial section. Criminals get
hold of this information and they kidnap Jennifer from a Jenna street. They
take her to a hotel room, tie her up like a hunted animal and the criminals
proceed to have a drinking party. Jennifer, lying on one of the beds, tries
to block out the sounds and odors of her abductors' drinking party and
spends the time reviewing school work in her mind. When her abductors fall
into a drunken slumber Jennifer works the ropes binding her arms off, slides
off the bed and, braced on her now free hands begins hopping to the door.

She prays her abductors do not awaken and, with her legs still tightly
bound, makes it into the hall where another guest in the hotel brings her
into his room where the guest's wife is packing. He calls the police, but
Jennifer's abductors try to get her back into their custody.

Eventually Jennifer is freed and the contents of the letter becomes known to
Jennifer. But Jennifer has a hard time dealing with her newly revealed
identity. She can't deal with the fact that she is not the same person she
has lived with for the past 17 years.

Both Pessi and Jennifer have to overcome problems with their identity
throughout the novel. Both have to deal with drastic changes in their
lifestyle. Both characters have to come to an understanding of who and what
they are in a world filled with danger, fear and self doubt. Painful
questions experienced by teenagers all over the world.





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